Rep. Marcelino Libanan | PHOTO: Official Facebook page of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
TACLOBAN CITY – In what could have been a hotly contested congressional race for the lone district of Eastern Samar just fizzled out.
Rep. Marcelino Libanan of the 4Ps party-list group decided to no longer seek the post now currently occupied by Rep. Maria Fe Abunda who was running for a third term in next year’s elections.
Instead, he would seek reelection, as first nominee for the party-list group, 4Ps. Libanan’s decision was firmed up on October 1, the first day of the filing of the certificates of candidacy (COC).
Libanan, House minority floor, said he met with Abunda, Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone and Speaker Martin Romualdez at the latter’s residence in Tacloban on Oct. 1.
He was accompanied by some of the mayors who were supporting him.
Article continues after this advertisement
“They (mayors) were not happy and find it hard to accept but this is a supreme sacrifice for my part,” he said on Tuesday.
Article continues after this advertisement
“The primordial reason here is to serve our people,” Libanan added.
With his withdrawal, Libanan will instead seek a reelection under the 4Ps party-list as its first nominee.
With his decision not to challenge’s Abunda’s reelection bid, Libanan said he made some requests.
Among them was that Abunda would not field candidates who would challenge the bid of the mayors who were allied with Libanan.
He also asked that Abunda would continue to support projects initiated or endorsed by Libanan.
These included the Maydolong-Basey Road and the Maslog-Jipapapd-Las Navas Road and the Allen-Matnog Bridge.
READ: 10 Marcos-backed senatorial aspirants in winning circle of SWS survey
He also said that Abunda should also help Eastern Samar to achieve stable power supply.
He also expected Abunda to help him campaign for 4Ps party-list group.
“I expect her to follow our agreement. If not, she will see the consequences,” he said.
Libanan admitted that Romualdez played a crucial role on his decision.
“Everytime we see each other, I could feel his burden. So I decided not to run for the congressional district of Eastern Samar for us to achieve peace,” he said.
Abunda belongs to Lakas-CMD which is being chaired by Speaker Romualdez.
Libanan also recalled that back in 2007,he also helped broker peace between Romualdez and the Petillas.
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.
At that time, Remedios Petilla, the matriarch of the Petilla political clan, and Romualdez were both eying Leyte’s first congressional district.
